Redefining the Term
by Saint H
Summary: Thoughts and words. Friends and foes. Actions and silence... all bleed into violence. Against Heaven. Against Hell. Here we are rewriting the book, redefining the term: ...
1. Channel Surfing

My body goes limp, and then-

"_DIE!" he spins viciously out of the dark, hands flaming._

_I react instantly, twirling my trusty lead pipe, "You first, HYA!"_

-flames shoot thru my bones. I constrict on the torn, ratty couch. Littered with cigarette burns. Not that I smoke, but it's last owner must have. The thought gets my mind off the battle-pain and my muscles again relax on the soft cushions.

I let out a breath, closing my eyes-

_Vic- or Cyborg, I guess- charges like a train into the mammoth-sized brawler that was moving towards me and my 'dancing partner' who is still trying his damnest to do me in with punches of fire._

_The sound of Cyborg and the mammoth colliding rattles the whole inside of the mall._

-which I instantly open.

"Uh... So Damn Screwed." I mumble for the millionth time since the beginning of my- I guess now our- crusade. I never mean it, but its still become a sarcastic mantra of the grim kind.

Despite the internal rips and bruises that writhe in protests I lift myself off the comphy, comphy couch and walk, at a forced normal pace, to the kitchen (if we can even call it that).

My bare feet make calmingly familiar padding noises as I move across the grimy tile floor and open the fridge door, sticking my head into the chilled space. I spy several cans of soda, a gallon of spoiled soy milk, and a mound of blue mold that I could almost swear was moving.

Shutting the door I move to the cabinets, I push past the herbal tea grounds and grip the container I'm looking for. I bring it down and set it on the counter, I grab two pieces of bread and dip my knife into the jar of peanut butter… and mysteriously come up with a sticky, yellow substance.

I glance down and the label stares up at me.

Mustard.

"Dammit, Kory."

I stick the mustard in the fridge where it should be and on my second attempt successfully put together a peanut butter sandwich.

I plop back down on the couch and bite into the gourmet meal. Chewing the nearly-adhesive paste a strange thought crosses my mind. I've had less trouble making multi-stage flash bombs.

Reaching for the remote I sit back and turn it on. Or rather almost do, before I pause. Staring in the reflective black surface I see myself.

The torn jeans, the fat shoes, the black T-shirt and its blue bird emblazoned on the chest.

My black hair is shaggy and tossed, my blue eyes are sharp.

Around a busted lip I smile and think.

Goddamn, it's good to be Nightwing.

I turn on our old TV set and flip thru the channels mindlessly.

Around me, the crusty paint peels off the walls from the rankness of five teens living under one (leaking)roof without supervision, and the censors hum with life, the occasional spark leaking thru the older, home-made systems. A few such sparks fall to the carpet and bounce around my feet. I've got to tell Vic to fix that, I really rather not the place burn down.

I stop my channel surfing on station four, for a repeat of the news. But where I expected a repeat, I got a breaking story… already old news to me.

Anne Cook stares from behind her newsdesk with a slight smile, "This just in, it appears that at just a few hours ago, during the dead of night a fight ensued between robbers and the infamous 'Teen Titans' gang. This was confirmed by the captured criminals and supported by the police, due to the M.O. being identical to the Titans. The robbers were tied up and hung from rafters, railings and street lights, waiting for the police while graffiti symbols known to be the Titans' were found on the scene. The most recognizable being the 'T' inscribed in a circle, and the nearly legendary 'Nightwing' bird, having been present since long before the Titans were ever seen.

"As always," she continues, "Much controversy surrounds the Titans and their actions. The police stand by their longstanding position that the Teen Titans are vigilantes, and dangerous ones at that. They claim if they are ever apprehended they will be subject to the full force of the law. The Mayor and a few other local and state politicians have more extreme stance, claiming the rogue group are terrorists rooting out competition in the underground, preparing for an attack on the city. But there are certain others, mostly citizens of the impoverished areas of the City, such as the South End where this took place, who think of the Titans not as vigilantes and certainly not as terrorist, but as heroes willing and able to protect the people in ways the police won't or can't.

Smiling a more fake smile into the camera, Anne finishes, "Vigilantes, terrorists or heroes, the Titans are certainly active, and have boosted police arrests to more than twice the past record. For Channel Four, Early Morning News, I'm Anne Cook. Good night."


	2. Rape by Metal Fist

There are no windows in my room, and it sucks.

Sucks big, hairy balls. Probably smelly ones if I had to guess.

It's my one complaint about the place, it's buried. I know it's for safety, but still, a little sunlight would do this place wonders… or at least make me feel more at home.

These thoughts are in the back of my mind as my massive form stirs from a miniature hibernation, I stretch out my thick front legs and flex my giant paws, claws digging into the floor. I stand and shake the sleep from my fur, and glance around my pig-sty of a room.

Feeling a grumble in my stomach, I flinch, shudder, and morph in a flurry of bear-fur and green flesh into my 'human' form.

I sit for a moment on all fours and scratch my ear with a foot.

"OOOOoooohhhyeaaahh… that's the spot."

I notice her a second before she speaks, "Gross."

I look at her, my jaw jutting out further, "Whatever. Shouldn't you be reaching Buddha or something instead of peeking in my room? Or maybe you just can't get enough of me?"

"Not likely."

In a deft move I leap out into the hall and stand up on two legs. Looking my spooky roomie in the face (or shadow that might hide a face) I grin, "Don't deny it, Raven. Women of all races and places can't deny my charm. You know what they say about pointy ears relating to genitalia."

"You must be thinking of some other species."

My ears fall as I frown, "Dude, most uncool. Why would you even say something like that?"

"Sadozoophelia."

Question marks shoot out around my head, "Not that I really understand what you're getting at, I'm still offended."

She leaves.

"Huh?" I spin around and look around the halls, taking in everything.

I've seen her do this before, she always does this. She leaves and I can never tell how. Just one moment she's hear, the next she isn't. It isn't even like she vanishes, she just is and then suddenly isn't.

Like if you can think of someone 'isn't'ing, this would be what she did.

It's just another part of what makes her so damn spooky. Like the way she never comes out from under that cloak. Like how she seems to float everywhere. Like how I've almost never seen movement of any kind underneath that damn blue cloak.

If it wasn't for Nightwing and Vic swearing they've seen her without it, I'd think she was just the cloak with nothing underneath.

I let it go with a final scratch of my head, and make for the kitchen. I hope the soy milk isn't too spoiled.

* * *

"DUDE! BALLS!" the green (and hairy) creature yells after spitting his (very)spoiled soy milk onto my face.

"Oh." Kory gasps slightly from her position in the air.

Nightwing chuckles at the situation.

Raven 'is' in the middle of the room: untouched.

And me, well…

I wipe the (fake)milk from my face and glare at the little grass stain.

He gulps, "Uh… Vic. Look on the bright side. It could be another famous white substance."

"I don't think that's helping." Nightwing grins, loving every minute of it.

My eyes never leave the changeling's face, "Do you have a little Cyborg in you, Druid?"

"No." he says, cautious.

"Well you're about to have a lot."

His eyes grow saucer-wide.

"Excuse me?" Kory's head cocks to the side.

"Oooh," Nightwing chimes from the couch, "Rape by metal fist… sounds like a grindcore album."

Raven shuffles, ever so slightly.

"Heh, you're just kidding Vic. Heheh… right?"

I look at him, my face completely serious, "When you least expect it, Druid, my gargantuan metal fist _will_ make anal penetration."

The color drains from his face.

Realization finally dawns on Kory's face… followed by a sour face.

I smile with absolute evility, and leave the room.

Druid stares after me for a long time, before shaking out of it in a jittery state of fear, "Heh, Vic's just kidding. He wouldn't do that. No way! Hahaha!…. W-would he?"

Kory shrugs.

Raven is.

Nightwing smiles to himself.

Druid sees it, "What? What 'Wing? What do you know that I don't?"

Nightwing pivots his head and looks at Druid with his dead-cold eyes full of mischief, "You'll see."

Every feature of the green teen falls…

…

"I think I'm gonna be sick."


	3. phear teh vag

_Elsewhere, same time, different part of the City…_

The four sit in their cells in the isolated hall.

"We are so deadmeat." Gizmo marinates in his gloom.

"You think he's really gonna be that mad?" Mammoth asks, hopefully.

"Of course he's gonna be _that_ mad, peabrain." Gizmo starts, "We failed him. You know DeathStroke doesn't take kindly to failure. We should count ourselves lucky that we're even in the cells. If we weren't we'd probably be dead already. Of course we can't stay here because we're sitting ducks. We have to leave soon, and without alot of fanfare."

"Who cares about what DeathStroke thinks!" Shatterfist growls from his cell adjacent to mine, "If he tries to pick a fight with us I'll kill him myself!"

He strikes a pose and his fists immolate in flame.

"Please," I drone, my features weighed down with melancholy, "Shatterfist, if you had the talent to take on DeathStroke the Titans wouldn't have handed us our asses last night at the mall."

He glowers at me from betwixt dual glowing forcefields, "Oh yeah? Then why did DeathStroke send us to kill the Titans instead of going to kill them himself? He's scared of them!"

Arrogant sonuva- "Even if that sterling statement wasn't utter bullshit, the Titans still kicked our butts, so we can't even match ourselves up to the ghoulish assassin who hired us."

"Speak for yourself, Witchy-girl. I would've had Nightwing if it wasn't for the floor cracking out from underneath me, and that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for _somebody_ having a brawl with that walking refrigerator."

"Hey man." Mammoth frowns, "He charged me, I didn't have a choice."

"Besides," I smirk, "The way I remember it, 'Wing was putting the hurt on you pretty bad."

The flames around his fist roar and he seethes in my direction, "Watch yourself, bitch."

My eyes and hands dance to life, sparking pink entropy, "Anytime, anyplace. If there weren't forcefields between us you wouldn't even have the balls to say that."

"Wait 'till we get out and see!"

"Guys!" Gizmo pipes up, "Jinx, Shatterfist, chillax for second."

The security camera's shudder and spark for a moment before pausing and smoking lifelessly.

Shatterfist glares at me for a moment before breaking eye contact and leaning himself up against his cell wall, arms crossed.

I sit back on my bed, "What is it, Giz?"

The diabolic munchkin gives me a devil-grin of joy, holding up a miniature computer, he punches a few buttons and the blue forcefields in front of us shimmer and fade.

"I just found the spare key."

I step out into the hall and glance at Shatterfist expectantly.

He frowns and looks away to the wall, his fist burning before he sending it flying thru the cement and mortar, leaving behind a smoldering doorway to freedom, "Lets just get out of here."

I Cheshire grin behind his back and think:

That's right, fear the almighty uterus.


	4. Pure Speed, Part 1

Bass and treble reverberate throughout the cleared section of forest.

Adolescent bodies move impaired to music, laugh at normally unfunny situations, and participate in other other, more R-rated things as the music roars, the alcohol flows, and illegal substances get passed around… generally to the left.

From my perch, high in a tree surrounding the party, I notice something out of the ordinary.

Three teens on the outskirts of the party.

Three teens separate from the rest.

And as my avian eyes focus on them those three teens… run like the wind.

_VOOSH! VO-VOOSH! VOOSH!_

"What the –_hic-_Hell was that?" one drunken and otherwise inebriated young man blubbers to everyone and no one in particular.

…

After a few moments of no one answering him he forgets he even spoke and goes back to nursing his bottle and laughing at random happenings. The event lost in the deafening music.

One girl sits up(bra half on, shirt missing, 'new boy friend' passed out), rubbing the back of her head, while another guy swaggers about and tries to keep his balance.

Not unusual for a party, but from and unusual source. One that only I seem to notice. Not that these partiers would even if they were sober. Too fast. Impossibly fast.

I think I've found what 'Wing was talking about.

Over by the pond, three teens lounge where they weren't the moment before.

One teen, male, giggles insanely at their antics, squeezing a voluptuous teen miss to his side, "Oh man! Look at those nobodies! Hah! Dumb fucks, no idea they've got no wallets or cell phones anymore, HAH!"

The girl giggles.

The third teen, male, gazes off (eyes only slightly bloodshot), bored, before voicing his opinion, "Why do we _always_ do this Barry?"

The first male, now revealed as Barry, turns to the third teen, "What's the matter Wally? Afraid we're gonna get caught? Hahhaha!"

The girl smiles at Wally, "Yea, c'mon. It's not like their parents aren't filthy rich anyway."

Barry sneers, drunken and high himself, "Yea, we're like Robin Hood's, takin' from the rich and givin' to the…. US! HAHahaha!"

Wally's eyes do summersaults, "Nah, it's not that I feel bad about it. Spoiled fags probably won't give it a second thought whenever they wake up naked on their parent's lawn in the morning. It's just it's not fun anymore, I'm burnt out on messing with the same rich losers.."

_VO-VOOSH!_

"Here," Barry says graciously as he rematerialized, someone's pipe now in his possession(_Hey, where'd my pipe go?!…. Oh well, I've got another in the car!)_, "Hit this, it makes everything better!"

Wally eyed the pipe skeptically, "Barry, do I look stupid, that shit ain't pot, I can smell it ain't pot. Do you even know what is in it?"

"Not really, but I know the guy I stole it from was having one helluva good time!"

Wally's hair dances around his face as he shakes his head.

A blank look crosses over Barry's face before he shrugs it off, "Oh well, more for me." Pulling out a lighter and putting it to the bowl, Barry inhales deep.

"Jeeze Barry, that shit smells awful and it's so strong! My parents'll smell it on me!" the girl, now away from Barry's side, whines.

"What? C'mon you guys! Jessie, Wally, c'mon! It's just a little fun!" Barry crows, standing up, his eyes bloodshot from the night's activities, "It's not like it's gonna kill us. And it's not like we're gonna get caught! We are faster than the speed of light! Faster than the speed of… fuck, I dunno… thought! We are Gods!"

Jessie clears her throat loudly.

Barry nods to her, "And goddess."

She nods, Wally smirks.

Barry continues with his speech, "We can do whatever the hell we please!" He eyes Wally leerily, "You're bored, Wally? What's say we go do something else…fun."

Wally's expression of boredom shifts into one of interest, "What you got in mind?"

Jessie shifts, uncomfortable, "I dunno guys. Last time we did 'something else fun'... bad things happened."

Ignoring the latter speaker, Barry sneers down at the other boy, "You wanna find out… you'll have to catch me!"

_VOOSH!_

"Barry! Wait! Goddammit!" Jessie screams after the long gone teen. She turns to Wally in a huff, "Dammit! Why won't that boy ever listen to me! He's gonna get himself hurt."

Wally smiles and shrugs, "Maybe it's because you talk too much."

_VOOSH!_

"What? Shit!" Jessie stares after the two boys, now far beyond her sight. She crosses her arms in a pout and stands there for a few seconds.

….

"Oh fine."

_VOOSH!_

I stay on my perch for a few seconds longer, the noise-storm of the party floating up and blurring into one audio-shitburger floating in space. It doesn't touch me though, as for once I'm deep in thought.

Not only was Nightwing right about something weird going on here.

It might be something too big for us to handle.

I lead from the branch and spread my wings, rising up over the forest. I sail on updrafts under the night sky, and no one registers the odd fact that an eagle is colored green.

* * *

I sit out on the front porch of the (at least temporarily) abandoned house we're currently squatting in. It's odd being away from home. Away from the City, but the situation calls for it, and beneath the danger and awkwardness I've always felt more relaxed whenever I'm lost, trying to find my way.

A strong gust of wind rolls thru the hills and the old house creaks with age. Inside I know Kory is asleep… Raven might be, but it's hard to tell with Raven. Vic human side is unconscious, but his robo-half is only recharging.

Druid is out doing some scouting. Of course he's been gone for a few hours now, the moon is hanging low in the night sky and the faintest touches of gray are beginning to haunt the eastern horizon.

I take in a breath and let the thought go with the next wave of breeze. The brisk air on my skin helps keep me alert. It's not that I'm tired though. I'm nocturnal by necessity. I learned a long time ago that daytime is the only time it's even remotely safe to be asleep. It's just that I've been keeping this vigil for the better part of three hours, and I'm starting to get a little restless. One foot rolls my skateboard back and forth; I twirl my lead pipe around in my hand, impatient.

"Druid has not returned?" a voice that I'm tempted to describe as innocent(but would more correctly be described as perpetually honest) smoothly spreads thru the dark.

I stop twirling my pipe.

"No, Kory." I make eye contact over my shoulder, "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

She floats softly in my direction and then sets down gently beside me.

Close.

"Nightwing." I'll never admit it, but the way she says my name alone is stronger than one million of the best puppy-dog faces combined, nevermind the fact that those big green eyes are looking at me so trustingly. And the fact that she hasn't yet developed a sense of modesty, best illustrated by her very, very small nightgown.

I try to push all of this out of my brain, "Yeah, Kory?"

Her eyes shift back and forth and she leans closer to me (her upper body almost falls out of the nightgown) and bits her lip nervous, "Promise you will not tell the others the secret I am about to entrust to you."

The way she whispers is powerful. Like she's trusting me with life and death. And in that moment something dawns on me, this alien would trust me with matters of life and death, after only a couple of months of knowing each other. At first I find the thought pathetic, but then it dawns on me that I'm the best friend she's got in a big new world. The others like her alright (except Raven… although it's hard to tell with Raven) but they don't have much time to help her with getting used to life here.

Though, I'm probably not the best example of how to fit in on planet Earth. But then again I'm not green or half-robot, so I guess I'm the best she's got right now. She really would trust me with her life, when she knows next to nothing about me. I ruminate on that for a moment, and one thought comes to mind:

God… so damn _kinky_!

"Nightwing?" her soft voice pleads, calling me out of my thoughts.

"Of course, Kory. You can trust me." Tempting though it may be to exploit my position on such a powerful(scary) and beautiful(sexy) being, I know I need to be worthy of her trust, for reasons too numerous too count off.

Upon hearing my assurance of privacy her eyes sparkle a magnificent green joy as she presses her body against my side and lets her lips brush on my ear, having no idea just how seductive she's being, she whispers, "_I was having a 'night-mares'."_

My heart leaps to my throat, I swallow it back down. Something stirs in my… well you get the idea.

I push past it, "Uh, don't worry Kory, nightmares are just dreams, they go away when you wake up. Trust me, its best to just forget them."

She looks to the side, "Perhaps… no, of course you are right, Nightwing. But," She looks me in the eyes, hers half-lidded, "it might be easier to forget with you nearby."

My eyes nearly pop out of my head, I cross my legs suddenly, I try to think of a response but the only thing I can think is: OK, she knows exactly what she's doing.

I pull myself together and open my mouth to speak-

"DUDES!"

-and am saved from a potentially awkward situation by Druid's arrival. (of course… I suppose technically he cock-blocked me too… but I'll ignore that for now.)

Kory's face instantly switches back to honest(innocent?) jubilance, "Druid! You have returned safely!" She rushes out to where the green fowl had landed and recently morphed to his human form, entrapping him with a monster hug.

"Uh… yeah Kory. Good to see you too!" He smiles around the bruising ribs.

"So, Druid, anything new?" I inquire.

His face gets serious, "Dude, you're not even going to believe this."

I just got hit on my a girl from outer-space, I'm inclined to believe almost anything at this point, but I just nod and stand, "Alright, get inside and we'll wake up the others."

* * *

Space swirls and distorts as the super-speed gives me tunnel vision. The world zooms by and nothing is left but silence(sound isn't fast enough), speed, and we three.

Ahead of me is Barry, the messed up fool always zooms forward, wanting more. More booze, more drugs, more speed. Somewhere lost behind me is Jesse, in a lot of ways Barry's exact opposite, but she still gives it up to him.

What do I care though, right?

Suddenly Barry stops.

I follow suit.

Follow.

Always…

He turns.

Smiles-grins-sneers. The Bastard. God I love him.

"OK!" he starts, "You're bored? Check this out!"

Jesse is missing.

I check this out.

Turns out 'this' is a bar on the outskirts of town, filled with drunk Klansmen, Nazi's, Hells Angels and general white supremacists.

I frown.

I turn, "Why'd you bring me here, Barry?"

"You said you were bored with messing with the same old people. I found you new people to mess with. So have at it."

I stare at the bar.

Fucking scum.

My fists clench. I could do it. God I could do it.

But……

* * *

The two boys had gotten away from me again.

That's the real trick to superspeed, it doesn't matter how fast you can go if you don't know where they are. You're still lost. It doesn't help that they're faster than me either.

I stop in the middle of the woods, on the very entrance of town. Not that the town was any less rural than its outskirts, being so small, but the log cabin seemed a bit much.

"I mean, seriously," I say to myself, "Do the people who own this just want everyone who drives by to think that we are screaming 'Deliverance'? Hey there! We're a bunch of psychobillies just waiting to drink moonshine, shoot our .22s and molest you anally!"

The cabin says nothing to me in reply. Stupid thing. I don't like it.

And what I don't like goes away… very fast.

I grin evilly and roll up my sleeves. As I moved toward the offensive thing I noticed something I didn't earlier.

It was inhabited. Interested, I zoomed up to the window and had a peek inside. And what I saw blew my mind.

* * *

"Dude, why are you always such a bitch, Wally?"

I ignore the question as the world zooms around me.

"Seriously man, why didn't you just do 'em over? It would've been no problem for you man."

I speed up. He moves faster.

He's always been the fastest.

Too fast.

"Well?"

"Its not right."

"Bull-shit! You didn't have any problem beating up those skin-heads at the movies last week!"

My frown tightens, "That was different."

"It was exactly the same."

We halt in synch.

I stare at him, seething.

Boiling.

_Hating._

My fists clench and vibrate past the point of human detection and burn the air.

He looks at me, smiling, "Oooh, somebody's mad. Hahaha! Whachya gonna do? We both know I'm faster Wally! So c'mon! Lets g-"

_BLAAAAM-VSH!_

Before he can even be hurled back by the force of my train-wreck sized punch he catches himself and gets in my face, his shattered nose spilling warm blood like Niagara Falls.

"So… Wallace," He wipes the blood from his face, cringing at the pain.

It feels too good, I don't even hide the sinister smile on my face. He sees it and seethes.

God I hate this guy.

Barry builds himself up, "Lets do this, B_IT-_" The rest of his word is lost to the sound barrier as we blur into a violent duel at speeds past human comprehension, past the laws that govern the way we know things, past the need for time.

We die and are reborn infinitely on the altar of each other's fist's, losing existence in pure speed.

* * *

Nightwing stood in front of us. On the bed adjacent to my own Victor rubs the sleep from one of his eyes. Koriandr floats near Nightwing's person in a nightgown that seems rather thin and small for the chilly air. Druid sits down by Victor, looking confident, presumably because of his informed state.

And I. I am.

I sit on my bed.

Nightwing starts to speak.  
I listen.

"Alright guys. Druid's back and he thinks he's found out the reason for the disappearances, lefts, and last week's murder. Now, this is going to sound pretty weird-"

"Dude, you're talking to us." Victor spouts sarcastically.

Nightwing ignores, "-but here it is."

I see it.  
I interrupt.

"Someone's at the window."

The others look.

* * *

I blink. I blink again. This seriously can't be. My eyes go out of focus and then back again. My mouth goes dry and, despite me telling myself not to, my eyes begin to water.

I want to run. I want to scream. I want to find Barry, Wally, somebody! But I can't turn away. My eyes won't let me.

The first one I notice is the green one… the green _thing!_ He's short, with an underbite the size of Texas and long, grisly green hair that falls around his freakishly pointed ears.

The next one freaks me out even more, a weird man-robot thing! As he sits up I see that half of his face is normal, but roughly half of it is covered in metal and weird looking circuits and wires underneath blue glass… with a red, lightbulb-like eye. His whole right arm is replaced with machinery, as is his left forearm and shoulder. His torso is mostly human, but also has circuits and metal scattered throughout, and the skin inbetween is horridly scarred.

The next one is scary not in the former grisly imp or black-frankenstien way but in the whole 'monster under the bed' mixed with 'dying old people' and a dash of 'black cat staring you right in the eyes'. It's a cloak. A blue cloak. Its floating, the head seems to be facing in the direction of the speaker…. And it freaks me all to hell.

The speaker seems to be the only one who's anything like normal, if not a little too punk rock and DIY. His shirt is too tight with some gaudy blue bird on it. His jeans are practically shredded and he's wearing skater shoes… those went out of style in the 90's! Who does he think he is, Shawn White? He's saved by the fact that he's damn sexy. A ripped bod, long black hair, a strong face and deep blue eyes almost make the fact that he's in a room filled with monsters disappear.

Well, monster might be a bit much to describe the last member, but 'freaky slut' would seem to be most appropriate. A 'well endowed' girl and waaay to little clothes was… no kiddin', _floating_ next to him.

My eyes grow wide, I breath hard, "No way…"

Their head shift.

They're eyes take me in.

I swallow my heart, "… Oh poo."

They move to the door. And for once my legs won't move.


	5. Pure Speed, Part 2

_Their heads shift._

_They're eyes take me in._

_I swallow my heart, "… Oh poo."_

_They move to the door. And for once my legs won't move._

_I shake my head, snapping out of it. I spin and begin to speed away before I notice the blue cloak has just appeared in front of my escape route. I stop and stare at it as it hangs there, like some sort of blue rag from hell. I turn and blur in another direction._

_It's there._

_I spin to leave again._

_Again, it's there._

_I fall on my but, crying out. I stare up into the hood._

_Bad idea. Bad, bad , bad, bad bad badbadbad idea! _

_All I see is darkness beneath the hood…and it grows, it spreads, it swallows me whole. Now I can't see, can't hear, can't touch or taste or smell. I can't even move, because there is no space around me to move in… I just am. Just am… and nothing else is._

_And in this nothing… double nothing… absence of nothing or anything and any otherthing… I do my best imitation of a scream._

_The un-silence of it strikes a chord of pure horror in my mind._

"AAAH!" I burst awake.

My lungs tremble as I swallow massive gulps of air. My body shakes and beads of sweat slide along my skin. My head swirls in a nauseous maelstrom. Eventually I manage to shake the cobwebs from my mind and realize my condition. I'm keeled over, strapped to a chair that's sitting in a cold room that's being painted a crimson-pink by the rising sun.

I look up dazed and realize with sickening pain exactly where I am: the log cabin.

And guess who my room-mates are?

"Oh-Oh Jesus." I mutter, "Y-you mean… it wasn't a nightmare?"

"Well," I'm almost surprised to hear the green hairball speak English, "at least she's as freaked by us as we are by her."

Black-Frankenstein smirks. Freaky-floating bimbo just stares at me like I'm a spy… which I guess I might be. The Punk ignores the comment and moves closer to me.

I focus my vision on him to avoid looking at the other one. I'd rather run of the edge of the world than look at that thing again.

The Punk comes close to me and I see that, even up close, he's cute. He's downright handsome… but the edges on that pretty face are too hard, his stare too intense to be forgotten, like a soldier... or a rebel. With a second thought I realize that he's just as scary as the others.

He speaks, his voice is hovers just above being bass, but it's immeasurably intense, with a slight growl, "Who are you?" 

For a moment I'm taken aback… and then I remember who I am, "Sh-Shit! Right! Who am I? Who are you? You and you're freaky ass friends! You come busting into my town! You should be answering to me, and don't think I can't make you! This chair you've got me tied to is about as useful as tying a tiger to a toothpick!"

"We know about your powers." He continues, undaunted, "We know you can move faster than the human eye, faster than I or most of us could ever hope to respond to. Fortunately, we have someone who doesn't have to 'move' to get somewhere."

Without him even motioning it it's direction, my eyes glance fleetingly at the devil in the corner, hiding underneath it's cloak.

Dread shakes thru my spine.

I cast my eyes to the floor.

"Who are you?"

I look back into his blue, piercing eyes.

"Who are your friends? How do you do it and why do you use it for the things you do?"

I raise an eyebrow, "W-What?"

"We know about the fight at the theater. We know about the death. We know how the body was dealt with, it had to be one of you."

"Wh-Who are you people? Some kind of monster-cops?"

Black-Frankenstein smiles, his machinery moving seamlessly with his flesh in an eerie imitation of nature, "Not quite. Think of us as the Neighborhood Watch."

"On all kinds of roids and meth." The green hairball throws in.

Suddenly a hand grips my shoulder hard, and the punk is right in my face, "Everything. How you do it. What you've done. Who you all are. Now."

"Or else."

I don't even question the faceless voice that comes from the corner, "W-well… I- I can't fill you in on everything, because I haven't been a part of it from the beginning…"

PAGEBREAK!

_Honestly, I haven't even been a part of it very long._

We dance like dueling devils in a dimension so violent that it can't support a reality or physical laws. Only energy, only violence.

A perfect place to fight when you're pure speed.

_But I'll tell you what I know._

There is no basis to the fight, we're both past bodies and thoughts, just the simple fact that we're fighting is the only thing we bring with us. The fight, and the pain.

The energy storm roars in ways that can't be described in term under the speed of light and using only three dimensions. It's motion, it's existence, it's power, it's undeath and unlife and a searing numbness shooting up the nose and settling in the back of the skull that I (for the moment) don't even have.

_A few months ago there was a meteor shower. Y'know, the romantic things that teen honey's go out and do the dirty under. This one was mostly like that, 'cept one of 'em got too close. One of 'em struck. _

The whole plane of being shudders and shakes, like the anti-lock brakes of the universe.

The storm rages as violently as ever, but I feel myself pulling away from it. Time and subconsciousness creep back into me as I fall down the dimensional ladder.

With one person for company.

_Now, Barry's always been curious, and it's nearly killed him plenty of times, but he just HAS to go see it. So he pulls out of me, puts on his pants and starts up the truck. _

The horrors and wonders of the fifth and four dimensions passed before my mind as the quarks that made the atoms that made the piece of my body began to coalesce into my body. Suddenly I feel a drop like an anchor was chained to the inside of my stomach and then thrown off a sky-scraper. Then I feel the landing. My skin stretches as my body compresses and my consciousness gets tied in a square knot.

_He goes down to the crash site while I stay in the truck. He comes back after about ten minutes… different. Like he's in a daze… like if he just woke up from a dream he couldn't quite let go of, but he won't tell me what he saw._

Like a cold shotgun blast to base of my neck my home-reality snaps into place around me. I notice I'm back in the woods as I fall to my knees, completely drained of energy past anything anyone could ever understand. It's not that I'm lower on energy than normal people, truth be told I've got about as much energy as a normal person who just finished a brisk jog, but that's the problem. I'm used to having more energy than a nuclear explosion, and take my word for it, that much power loss is a horrible experience.

I stand on a knee, my vision swimming in vertigo. Out of my blurry eyes I see Barry's fuzzy figure stand. Thru the ringing in my ears I hear his voice, "Poor little Wallace. Always trying to keep up, yet always falling behind."

Then I feel, more than sense, that he blurs away.

Towards the cave.

_Then he and Wally start palling around more than they used to, and one day Wally seems changed too, overnight he's got more vitality than I'd ever seen. It's weird tho. The two would just disappear, like magic, 'poof' gone. And then they'd be back. They could do almost anything it seemed like… until the first drain happened._

Blurring.

Already? No way.

We went to the freakin' _source_! There's no way he should have the energy left for that. I mean, I know Barry's more powerful than I am but, I guess I didn't realize how much. He was going super-speed still while I was having trouble standing up! Ugh! This sucks.

He was moving slow for Barry, though. And he was heading towards the cave. He's drained. Though, obviously not as much as me.

Then, a thought crosses my mind that makes me shiver: He'll get to the cave and recharge before me. Then he'll come back and finish what I started.

Not good.

I've got to get to the cave and recharge. Otherwise I'm toast. Sure, Barry and I have been friends for years, but when he's pissed he can't tell up from down. Let alone wrong or right.

I make myself stand, and I walk for the cave.

_One day they came to school absolutely dead. Bags under their eyes, trouble staying awake, the works. Next day, same thing. On the third day? Bam! Back to their new old selves. Everyone thought it was drugs, even me. I was worried. So they showed me._

PAGEBREAK!

The Punk's lips tighten, "Showed you what?"

I close my eyes for a moment and suck a breath in thru my nose. I don't want to tell them. I shouldn't tell them. But that devil in the cloak will make me… and then later Barry and Wally will kill these freaks and I'll stop that thing's face in, if it even has a face.

"I do have one. And no, you won't." a monotonous drone came from under the hood.

I stare at her, eyes wide in utter shock.

The other for all shift their gazes to the cloak. The Punk looks back at me, he puts a black-gloved finger on my check a force me to meet his eyes. He repeats himself, slowly, "Showed. You. What?"

"I-It wasn't really a meteor that hit the earth. It was some kind of alien ball."

The Punks eyes widen. Black-Frankenstein frowns and the hairball shifts uncomfortably. The other two don't really respond.

"What does it look like?" his perfect teeth flash white in the rising sunlight, "What did it do?"

I shudder, and continue, "It was like a sphere of black metal with strange… carvings all over it. At first I was scared of it. Then they touched it and it started to glow, and the glow moved into them. That's when they showed me their powers, their speed. Then I touched it, and the world exploded in light. The next thing I knew, I was faster than speeding bullet."

"What about that 'drain' you talked about?"

I curse myself on the inside for mentioning that part, "Every now and then the power cuts off and the speed is lost. For me its still just after a prolonged amount of time, but Barry and Wally can both burn up what they have by going really fast."

"How fast?" 

"Faster than I can see, and I can move fast enough to make it seem like time stops."

A shocked look places itself on all of their faces, and even the cloaked devil fidgets a bit.

They exchange glances. The metal man and the Punk lock eyes and nod simultaneously.

The Punk turns back to me, his black hair framing his scowling face, "Take us to the sphere."

The metal man returns with a pair of ghetto-scifi handcuffs.

"Now.

PAGEBREAK!

The blur of colors stops its kaleidoscopic spinning and settles into a normal forest-at-sunrise scene as I come to a stop at the top of the hill, breath hard. I put my hands on my knees and stare at the ground, gasping, "Fuckin' Wally West. I'll… I'll kill that little bitch."

Dizziness hits me. I lean involuntarily to one side, overcorrect, and fall on my ass.

"… But first," I growl, staring down the gently sloping hill that leads to a dark cave-entrance, "Recharge."

I stumble to my feet and begin my decent down the hill. My mind is so bent on getting to the sphere I don't even notice the fist until it crashes into the side of my face.

I lose my footing and start rolling head over heels down the hill. From my tumbling vision I discern that my attacker is doing the same. Beyond that I can't tell anything else, but I don't need to see who it is to know who it is.

Wally.

I come to a stop at the bottom of the hill, soaked from all the dewy grass. I rise, my head spins, but I recover. Wally isn't so lucky.

I feel one of his ribs break under my punch, "I'm not sure how you got here so fast, Wallace." I spit out his full name like a bug in my mouth. I know he hates it.

His head spasm as he looks up, one eye closed, the other wincing, "I'm tougher than you think, Barry. I got here the same way you did, on foot."

What? He blurred here after fighting in the source? No way he could do that, he's not fast or strong enough… but then again there's no other way he could've gotten here.

A wicked smile carves itself onto my face, oh well, "Impressive, Wallace. Didn't think you had it in you. Doesn't matter much though. It's obvious you're dead on your feet."

I shove him back hard. He falls to the ground; his head and back smacks against the rock entrance to cave. His eyes bulge open and almost pop out of his head. His mouth opens wide in pain and all that comes out is a trickle of blood and pitiful groan.

"Hehehehe! You're tired Wallace, but I've just caught my second wind! I think I've got time to finish you before I recharge. Afterall, you know like I do, Wallace. With superspeed, the clock stops." I crack my knuckles, staring venom at my childhood friend as the redish morning sky lingers behind me. "Hehehe, I've got _all _the time in the world." 

His eyes are glazed over, but I know he sees and feels every bone-breaking punch and gut-busting kick.

PAGEBREAK!

A massive metal hand hits the radio as Black-Frankenstein, who I now know they call 'Vic', yells at the radio, "Goddamn radio! Give me something besides static and country!"

It proceeds to give Vic exactly static and country, nothing more nothing less.

He eyes it dangerously as we rumble down the gravel road, feeling every little piece of gravel… not to mention the potholes.

"Jeez Vic!" The green hairball next to me, Druid, jumps on the back of Vic's seat, grabbing his metal shoulders thru the gray hoodie he's wearing, "You think you could make us feel anymore like we're being bum-fucked by a mad bull?!"

Vic's massive jaw slides as he teeth clinch, the result being, literally, sparks, which makes me jump in my seat, "It's not my fault, D. This experience would be a lot smoother," Vic turns his head, looking past me and Druid to the empty space behind us that serves as the trunk of the vehicle, "if we weren't driving some _busted up, stone-age piece of shit!_"

The Punk, or, as I'd learned, the infamous criminal Nightwing(seriously! Nightwing, the guy you here about blowing up buildings, leaving the dead bodies of his rivals out in the street and playing games with the police on the nightly news Nightwing! The on-FBI's-most-wanted-list Nightwing! When I found out it was him I nearly freaked! …I'd spoken to a celebrity!) just looked up and met Vic's gaze, a slight smile on his face, "First of all Vic, it's not a P.O.S., it's a Bronco II. Two-thirds the weight of the original Bronco and twice as likely to flip over. Secondly, you need to give this old war-horse some respect. This thing has been doing me good since long before I knew you."

I suppose it's worth it to mention that next to him was the floating, skimpy nightgown girl, or Kory, as I'd heard them call her. The two were in the trunk, sitting on cardboard so they would notice less the cluttered mess of metal, trash, and other assorted things that were underneath them.

We continue down the road for a few minutes, in more or less silence(besides the wild bucking of the car on the road).

…

I shift in my seat.

…

I move my arms about, my cuffs clank together. Somehow they stop me from getting more than ten feet away from tall, dark and metallic up front. I frown at them distastefully.

…

Finally I speak up, "Um… excuse me. But, since I'm the one navigating… shouldn't I get to ride shot gun?"

They all answer simultaneously: "Nope." "Huh uh." "HAH! Right.." "No, sorry."

Only the one in it, the freaky devil-cloak-thingy(they call it Raven, but it's definitely the freaky devil-cloak-thingy in my book), doesn't respond.

They leave the situation in the air, responding no more than to tell me no.

"… why not?"

"Because it's mine." The cloak responds in that light, throaty voice of it's.

"Please, dear captive," Kory starts from behind me, in that o-so-proper speech of hers, "It is a Titan tradition that Raven always rides the 'shotgun', and it has been so since before I was ever inducted into their ranks."

"Me too." Druid groans miserably, scooting over and putting his face right into mine.

They just _HAD_ to make me share the back seat with him.

I turn and ignore the hairball, "And whats up with you?" I ask Kory, "Why do you talk so weird?"

Her head cocks to the side, "I beg your pardon?"

"Just like that! Nobody says, 'I beg your pardon' anymore! Its-"

I stop, dead. My mouth frozen in place. Nightwing is looking at me, and not in the way you usually want a handsome, famous boy looking at you. His face is casual, limp, nonchalant. His eyes scream hell-death. It's a moment before I catch my tongue, "I-Its, its awesome… yeah! Uh, it makes you really unique and shows your wonderful personality in a really endearing way!"

Her whole face lights up like a supernova, her big green eyes sparkle , her smile shines and takes up nearly half her face. She gushes at me, "Oh _thank you! Truly!_ I have rarely heard such kind words! Tell me, dear captive, will you be my friend?"

The statement strikes me dead in the water. Did she really just ask that?

Before I can collect my thoughts, we hit a huge bump that, literally, sends the car up into the air for a moment that sends us crashing back down. The toss had sent us all off our seats and into the air, and as we crashed back into the old cushion, an explosion of dust and aerial grime flew into the air and down our throats.

Amidst the coughing and sputtering and sneezing we managed to open the windows and let the noxious fume escape. Covered in a thick dust, Vic turns his head to Nightwing again, glaring.

"… I did say she was an _old_ warhorse."

"That does it." Vic growls, "As soon as we get home I'm makin' a new set of wheels."

A T was coming up in the road I knew, just over the next hill. If I waited until we got there it would look like I was holding back, but I couldn't let them just find the sphere, Barry would kill me!

"There's a 't' over this hill, take a left." I'm a casual as I can be.

The cloaked devil instantly turns, staring at me as well as a shadow in a hood can, "You're lying."

"N-no I'm not!"

We go over the hill, down the hill. We come to the 't'. We take a right.

Nightwing speaks behind me, his voice cold as ice, "Raven may not lie, but she can tell when people are."

I gulp audibly, the blood rushing out of my face.

I'm in way over my head.

PAGEBREAK!

Blood.

Blood.

It leakspoursfalls out of my body. It slides down my skin, gets caught in my hair, soaks into my cloths, crusts up and dries in my nose and mouth and eyes and ears even as more blood spurts out of those same places.

My bones are broken, my should is shattered, and I think part of my skull is showing, but I'm not really sure.

I slowly snake my right arm up the hillface and grab a fist full of grass, turning it red. I manage to wiggle my knees and hips around the pain and I move up the hill a few more inches, leaving a wet trail of blood, piss, shit and sweat in my wake.

But no tears. No tears for the pain, or the fear or the sadness… because I don't care about that. I don't care about life or death. I care about one thing.

Hate. Hate. _HATE!_ Fucking. Barry. Allen.

"I don't care." It doesn't really sound like speaking, I'm pretty sure he broke my throat. Can a throat even be broken? It hardly matters though. What should be words comes out as wheezes, sick cracks and sloshing gushes of blood.

My vision swam, my mind faded, and I took a deep breath, let it out… and didn't breath in again.

My thought went wild. Jesse, Barry, my parents, siblings, my dog, school, footballpolevaultingmytruckmyteachersthetestnextuesday…

It all blurred, blurred faster than I'd ever known or could ever understand, even it I'd been more charged than I'd ever been before.

It all blurred past a point, and all I was was a vision of white and then.

Clear…………..

……………………………………..

……..

……………………………………..

…………………………………..

_Tires roll over gravel._

………………………………………………

"_Omigod! Omigod Wally! No! No, no, no nonononono!"_

"_Dude! That guy is flayed!"_

"_Oh, man."_

"_Eep!"_

"_Hm."_

"…_."_

…

"_Uh, whats she doing?"_

"_Quite, Druid."_

"_No, seriously! She's going all blurry and glowy and touching him and stuff-"_

"_I said quite, Druid."_

"_Yes, Raven."_

…………….

………………………………..

………………………………….

………………………………..

_A ripple on the face of perfection._

_Unexistance is shattered as static enters my perception._

_A static, a white noise with no qualities other than existing._

_It grow, and grows, bigger and bigger and faster and faster. It grows into a buzzing, to a rumbling, to an all over shaking._

_A warmth, a stirring._

No, go away! Everything was so perfect! _But it doesn't go away, it just keeps coming. And I realize with sadness that mine being able to realize is proof enough that the perfection is gone._

_I give myself to the now searing noi_se, and I scream-

PAGEBREAK!

I enter the cave, and there it sits. Propped up against the cave wall is the source of all my power, my joy, my future in this world. The sphere.

I rush to it greedily and place my hands on it's smooth surface, Wally's blood covering my hands and smattered all over my being.

The engravings on the sphere light up and glow, and the glow moves onto my hands and up into my body. My back arches and I look up to the ceiling and I only know power.

My muscles flex, my heart beats millions of times per second, my molecules dance on fire and burn the air around me. Joy runs thru my nerves and I orgasm.

I feel it. The roaring, wild storm. I feel it thru the sphere moving into me, restoring me.

Its perfect! Perfect! This is it! The reason for living! Perfect! Perfect!

And then, suddenly, it isn't.

A ripple on the face of perfection.

Hyperexistance is shattered as static enters my perception.

Overwhelming, the buzzing builds up underneath the storm… and it's too much. Too much!

The glowing erupts and fills the whole cave. My veins pop. My heart ruptures. My molecules fly apart and incinerate in pure energy, and as my body disintegrates I scream-

PAGEBREAK!

-into the morning air, my eyes open and take in the waking sky.

Jesse is holding me, glowing softly… and it moves into me.

Restoring…. Recharge.

My bones reassemble. My skin heals scarless, my lungs breath and my body finds more blood. She holds me and I heal in the a vibrating glow that matches the just rising sun as it erupts over the horizon.

Five strangers stand back in awe.

And then, in the same powerful, the cave lights up.

And implodes.

The shockwave hits hard, throws us all back.

And I'm unconscious once again.

PAGEBREAK!

Jesse watches over my unmoving body, resting her head on the side of my hospital bed.

The tranquility is deafening, but welcome. The machine by my side makes a steady, rhythmic beeping noise. A nurse walks by now and again as sun shines thru the window.

And this continues for hours as it has been for hours.

At some point in the day three figures come in and talk with Jesse.

_Knock knock._

Jesse turns, and for a moment her eyes widen, "What do you want?" 

Nightwing, with a different t-shirt and wearing a hoodie, smiles at me with considerable kindness.

She ignores it.

Nightwing notices and takes a breath, "We just wanted to make sure your friend was alright before we left."

"Why?" Jesse spits.

Vic steps thru the doorway, having to duck to get in, "Because he was beat to a bloody pulp _and_… he's kinda a hero. I mean, he was fighting Barry to the end."

"Yes!" Kory, decked out in a the very peculiar fashion choice of a black 'Flogging Molly' T-shirt, flipflops and a _kilt_ of all things, gushes, "He nearly surrendered himself to insure that the despicable 'Barry' would no longer perform his foul deeds!"

Jesse looks at the odd girl… somehow still pretty in suck an odd outfit. "Y-yeah… I guess you have a point. But don't worry, he'll be fine." 

"Good." Nightwing smiles in a very warm way, "Then we'll leave."

The turn to leave and Jesse looks at my body, "Wait."

The three turn around.

Jesse looks at Vic, "… How did you get rid of all that, y'know…" Jesse motions around the left side of her head.

Vic smiles with his seemingly human head, "Internal holographic projectors. Good for short little stints like this." 

"Ah… I see."

….

"Well. Bye, I guess." Jesse mumbles.

The three nod and leave.

…

She looks down at me and speaks, "Thank god that thing's out of our lives, Wally." She breaths, "It was tearing us apart. I mean, you saw what it did to him… what it changed Barry into… hell, you felt it more than any of us. But the sphere's gone and so is he. I drained myself saving you and, seeing as how I couldn't heal you all the way, you're obviously not going to going blurring into the sunset anytime soon."

Jesse reaches up and runs a hand thru my hair.

"We'll just be… normal, from now on."

She thinks I can't hear her. She thinks I'm asleep.

In reality I've never been more awake.

I hear her starting to blink, and I open my eyes. I make sure that my body stays perfectly still, but my senses are on hyper-overkill-mega-drive. The second hand of the wall-clock freezes in place and Jesse's blink steadily slows-slows-slows until it halts in it's path.

I regard the frozen world around me, amused. I look at the wall… and I stare. I see it, past the wall, past this dimension and the next and the next and the next and there… there it is. The wild storm at the center of it all. The raw power.

I feel it flow into me. It's power reaching into all my limbs. I'm an outlet for it now, like the sphere was before it blew up… and it feels _good_.

I focus on the dimension around me. I stare up at the clock on the wall, hands frozen in place. I squint up at it, concentrating hard. Everything around me shifts just slightly, and- _tick-_ the second hand moves one space backwards.

"Heh, still got it."

PAGEBREAK

"So, you really think Barry did in those skin heads."

"Nope." Nightwing answers me shortly.

"Me neither. From what I found out about the guy he was just as likely to scream 'White Power' as the next Klansman."

The normal hustle and bustle of a small-town hospital lingers around us as we head for the exit. Kory zipping forward, barely making sure to stay on her feet, talking to everyone she could find to thank them for taking care of Wally.

"You think we should do something about him?" I ask.

"It seems like he's got not power left, Vic. Otherwise his wounds would've healed themselves already. Without his speed he's just another guy."

I nod, "True enough. So, mission accomplished?"

"I'd say so."

…

"Seriously, man. What's up with Kory's outfit?" I laugh, not able to hold it back anymore."

Nightwing frowns, "What, Vic. It's not like she can just come in here in her battle armor. She needs clothes for going out in public."

"Yeah," I smile, "But _that's_ the best we can do?!"

"Well, she doesn't have any of her own earth clothes, and you know as well as I do Raven doesn't have anything for her." 

"Shit," I smile, "Anything for Raven wouldn't be big enough for Star anyway… But seriously, man. That's the best you could come up with?"

"Hey man," Nightwing turns and looks at me, "It works, _Flogging Molly_ is an Irish band, with the red hair and green eyes she looks like a poster girl for Ireland."

"You don't think the kilt was a little much?"

"You know she won't were pants." He mumbles, "It was the best thing I had, besides. She seems to like it."

"Ya, ya." I smile as we exit the building and step out into the parking lot. The busted Bronco sits there, eyeing me like an old enemy. It's camo paint job now burnt and toasty from the morning's explosion, "All I'm saying is that when we get back we've got some revamping to do. I'm making us something else to ride around in besides the P.O.S. and you should help Kory get some more clothes."

"Why me?" Nightwing asks stubbornly.

"Raven won't do it."

"Right."

"Beast Boy would turn her into a cosplayer… which she would love but would be anything but inconspicuous."

"True, true."

"And I'm building us a new vehicle… that leaves you."

"I dunno man." He grumbles, "Whats so bad about what she has on now? She likes it, it looks decent, and people will just think she's a bit 'off'."

"Please hurry!" Kory calls from the edge of the Bronco, "I am most ready to begin our journey home!"

We both look up and smile at the alien angel, standing in the sunlight.

A gust of wind rolls over the parking lot and tosses up the kilt.

…

Druid's face plasters itself to the passenger window facing Kory, _"Dude! Did that just happen? No effing way!"_

…

"Kory." I say, barely holding back my astonished laughter, "How come you don't have on any underwear?" 

She tilts her head, confused, "I am sorry, Victor, but is it not customary to wear no garments underneath the kilt?"

I can't help but let a chuckle go as I look down at the astonished 'Wing.

He looks up at me, "OK. You win." 

"Damn right!"

…

"Why do you have a kilt anyway, dude?" I say, opening my door.

His head pokes out from around the back, where he's opened up the trunk and he and Kory are climbing in, "No more questions, Vic, just get us home." 

"Yessir!"

I close the door, pull out of the parking lot, and take the road East.

To home.


	6. Memory

I float.

Silently, dark. I flow with the rest of everything.

"Dude, what do you mean 'big hole in the middle of downtown'?"

I move towards the voices. Moth to the flame.

"It's rather self explanatory, Vic."

"Well, yeah. But how the fuck did it _get_ there?"

My eye twitches, ever so slightly. A faint whisper of something like guilt nearly trickles across the back of my mind.

Nearly.

"I don't know Vic. That's why I called you up. I can't do this one alone. I need some help."

"Heh, never thought I'd hear that from the mighty Nightwing."

His grin is audible.

"Still though, I don't know what I can do for you man."

"You've got more advanced equipment than I do, Vic. I'd start by scanning it for some radiation. If there is any, maybe whatever caused this left a trail."

"Yeah, yeah that's a good poin-… left a trail?"

"…"

"You think that whatever caused this is alive and moving?"

"Aren't they always?"

I float in closer, their vibrations getting strong enough for me to know them entirely in the moment. I wait for the opportune moment: its close.

"Well alright! Lets get this show on the road."

I move. I speak: "No need. I'm right here."

Their heads turn in sync, fear all over them.

My eyes open, my dark room surrounds me.

I blink. I blink again. I breath.

The dream fades back into memory from whence it came.

I close my eyes: and am.


End file.
